Search for AirAsia flight with 162 on board to resume at daybreak

Mystery surrounded the fate of another Malaysian-linked

aircraft after an AirAsia flight between the Indonesian city of Surabaya and Singapore went missing in bad weather with 162 people on board. Rescuers called off a massive sea search late yesterday until first light.

The Airbus A320-200 lost contact at 6.24am local time yesterday over the Java Sea. It was 49 minutes into a flight scheduled to last just over two hours. No distress call was made. The aircraft had recently been serviced and was just six years old.

Pilots on flight QZ8501 had asked to change course to avoid bad weather over Belitung, about halfway between Surabaya and Singapore. The aircraft was between Tanjung Pandan on Indonesia’s Belitung island and Pontianak, in West Kalimantan province on Borneo, when it went missing.

Flying hours

It was carrying 149 Indonesian nationals, including 16 children and one infant, with three South Koreans, and one each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain. Also on board were two pilots and five cabin crew, including a French pilot. The airline said the captain had 6,100 flying hours and the first officer a total of 2,275 flying hours.

“The aircraft was on the submitted flight plan route and was requesting deviation due to en- route weather before communication with the aircraft was lost while it was still under the control of the Indonesian air traffic control,” Air Asia said.

On Twitter, Air Asia chief executive Tony Fernandes said he was heading to Surabaya, and described the incident as his “worst nightmare”.

Tatang Kurniadi, head of Indonesia’s committee of safety transportation, expressed hope of locating the aircraft quickly.